Life is full of ups and downs, and we all do the best we can with the skills we possess. However, we aren’t always lucky in our achievements, personal connections, and we trust people we wish we hadn’t. These truths haunt us all.
I have been married, have had a few long-term girlfriends in my life, all of which left one type of scar or another. I have had a girlfriend steal my refrigerator, another steal cash and credit, and several infidelity-riddled relationships. This is not unique to me, as this happens to a lot of people, but it’s part of my journey.
Like a lot of us, I tend to give more than I receive, and usually that good deed will not go unpunished. However, it’s up to us to try to move beyond the hurt and pain people cause us and find a new path that works for us, allows us to heal, grow, and become a better version.
So, this is my great “restart” in San Antonio. A new home, swapped a red Ford F-150 Raptor truck (Shanel) for a new one of the same type in black; swapped a yellow Lamborghini for a black one (Carla), and started my life over in a new city where I don’t know a soul.
It’s not the first time that I have uprooted myself, picked up everything I own, and started over in a new place, and I’m no stranger to massively uncomfortable changes. I was born with a first and last name that would (some time later) become problematic for the profession I chose to go into after high school, so, at 17 years old, I opted to take my step-dads middle & last name before going into the military. I later went back to my birth name (which is what I’m back to now) after the military, a divorce, and some other issues… but I normally go by my first and middle names… Jason Maxwell. Don’t dive too deep, it’ll break your brain and isn’t that big a deal.
I was homeless before going into the U.S. Army at 17 years old. I served, and then started doing security contracting, and ultimately found my niche in business. I built several businesses from the ground up, purchased a few competitors companies to branch out, and sold several of my businesses in 2015 to focus on flying and my marriage, which would ultimately fail (the marriage) in 2022.
I am a veteran and VA service-connected for being shot a couple of times, blown up 6 times by IED’s, suicide bombed, but to look at me you’d never know. Thankfully, with the expansion of the VA, I was able to get 100% after 16+ years of service. Additionally, I sued the VA in 2022 on my own, without a lawyer, in federal court, for $11,000,000.00 for Professional Malpractice (therapeutic services [counseling]) in a group setting, when I was going through my divorce. The incident was well documented, had a dozen witnesses, and was escalated through VA leadership who ultimately took no action, to their peril. As a result, the VA contacted me prior to appearance in federal court and announced their interest in settlement negotiations. The Department of Veterans Affairs and I reached an agreeable outcome (monetary and otherwise) and the person is no longer employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and I did this all on my own, again without a lawyer. So, if you’re a friend, or friend of a friend, and need to know how to sue the VA on your own, I can help guide you in the right direction.
I’ve lost several friends at war, so I have a few dates of the year that I still get a little sad. Their names are Liam Carmichael, Severin Summers, Christopher Robinson, Larry Young, and a few others that died later due to war-related exposures, and their names are Michael Shawn Nelson, Bruce Antis, and Danny Borders.
No matter where you go, you bring a little bit of baggage with you that you’ll never shed. Overall, I’m generally a happy, content, peaceful man. However, you can expect me to overreact if someone is being hurt physically without provocation, is being harassed/berated/degraded for any reason not of their own doing, or if someone causes any innocent, non-threatening animal significant pain or death (that isn’t related to licensed hunting/fishing.)
So, here I am, in my new place, new space, and starting all over… again.